MAZON Statements

Today, the leading national anti-hunger organization MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger announced nearly $3.5 million in new grants to 52 local anti-hunger partner organizations across the United States and Israel, expanding its investment in fighting food insecurity. This includes new grants to partners in Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, and Oklahoma, as well as organizations advocating for the people of Puerto Rico, Indigenous communities in the U.S., and vulnerable populations in Israel. With today’s announcement, MAZON has invested over $17 million in 19 states, Puerto Rico, Indian Country, and Israel since 2018.

“Food insecurity is growing in both the U.S. and Israel while political leaders engage in increasingly partisan battles rather than enacting policies to address it,” said Mia Hubbard, MAZON’s Executive Vice President. “That’s why it is so critical that programs like MAZON’s Emerging Advocacy Fund invest in our partner’s vital anti-hunger work in some of the most food insecure places in the U.S. Achieving food justice requires time and persistence, and MAZON is proud to commit to long-term partnerships with advocates on the ground through its multi-year grantmaking model to support systemic changes in our food system. We are extremely proud of our partners in the U.S. and Israel who work every day to end hunger and address inequity with wisdom, creativity, and resilience.”

Built on nearly four decades of seeding, supporting, and strengthening the anti-hunger advocacy movement in communities across the U.S., MAZON’s innovative “Emerging Advocacy Fund” grantmaking model builds foundations for public policy change in communities with particularly high rates of food insecurity. As one of the largest investors in anti-hunger advocacy, MAZON’s partnership grants are structured to increase or sustain staff capacity to focus on advocacy and policy solutions at local anti-hunger organizations. Through this program, MAZON currently supports 31 partners including three organizations that started new projects this month: the Georgia Budget & Policy Institute, the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, and the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance.

“MAZON’s continued funding for food security and anti-hunger work has given us the resources and confidence to continue the successful advocacy they jumpstarted several years ago.” said Adrienne Olejnik, Vice President of Kansas Action for Children. “Because of MAZON’s investment in Kansas, summer EBT was saved, advocates collaborated effectively against SNAP eligibility restrictions, and school-based nutrition policy options have momentum for legislative improvement.”

“MAZON’s renewed round of funding of our work will allow us to build on the infrastructure we created through the first round that is already uniting families, farmers, and anti-hunger organizations in powerful and unprecedented ways,” said Jason Bailey, Executive Director of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. “Food insecurity deeply burdens families across Kentucky, but the issue also creates a real opportunity to unite rural and urban Kentuckians around a common agenda to make peoples’ lives better. We look forward to partnering with MAZON to deliver lasting improvements to the pressing problem of hunger and prevent further efforts to cut off access to a basic human right.”

Today’s announcement also includes renewed funding for several of MAZON’s longtime partners working to improve food security and food sovereignty among Indigenous communities across the U.S. For centuries, diverse Native food systems nourished Tribes and Native communities, but unfortunately today nearly 25 percent of Indigenous communities are food insecure and the U.S. government bars Tribes from administering critical nutrition programs like SNAP. MAZON has made it a priority to support policies that empower Tribes who want to address food insecurity on their own terms, working to ensure that they have the resources and autonomy they need for a self-determined, food secure future.

“Partnership with MAZON will allow us the opportunity for continued collaboration with the community to develop a food system that is reflective of who we are as Lakota people,” said Nick Hernandez, CEO and Founder of Makoce Agriculture Development. “Further, it will allow us the opportunity to discuss the challenges in creating a local food system, the opportunities available to us, and the solutions we can create together to make change happen for our Lakota people in South Dakota. We do this through effective collaboration that will help us take actionable steps towards developing our food system and making a lasting impact in our communities. Makoce Agriculture Development, and the Pine Ridge Reservation as a whole, have the potential to become thriving people again by working together to create real system change together.”

Since its founding, MAZON has been working to address food security and poverty issues in Israel. When this work began, there was neither a meaningful system of emergency charitable aid to address food insecurity in Israel, nor government policies needed to address the roots of hunger, and MAZON set out to build both. It is on these essential foundations, strengthened over decades by the MAZON community, that have been essential to supporting Israelis of all backgrounds in the last year since the October 7 attacks. Amid concerns about ongoing systemic issues in Israel — high cost of food, industry workers going without income, food systems being disrupted, etc. — MAZON and its partners will continue raising awareness and advocating for policy solutions at all levels of government.

“MAZON’s support is particularly crucial as we address a significant gap in Jerusalem’s municipal policies,” said Daniella Seltzer (Co-Founder) and Maytal Lochoff (Urban Food Policy Coordinator) of the Jerusalem Food Rescuers. “The municipality of Jerusalem does not currently have a food policy or recognize food as a field requiring one. MAZON’s support allows us to create a food council that will place food systems and food security on the agenda. This support is crucial in helping us achieve these milestones. Thank you for standing with us as we work towards a sustainable and food-secure future.”

“The ongoing support of MAZON enables us the continuity of the project and its expansion, as well as a connection to a network of MAZON organizations for social justice,” said Dani Vilenski, Founder and Director of the Solidarity Film Festival. “Thanks to MAZON’s support, we have received additional support for filmmaking educational workshops for teenagers in the city of Nazareth and for a group of Israeli Arab children from Lod who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds. The screenings of human rights films related to hunger, poverty, and food insecurity were followed by conversations and lectures with experts in the field. These events provided the young participants a foundation of human rights cinema and creative thinking, and the workshops enabled them to create personal short films that reflect their stories, which often include food insecurity, marginalization, and  discrimination.”

MAZON’s current Emergency Advocacy Fund grantee partners are:

• Alabama Arise (Montgomery, Ala.)
• Alaska Federation of Natives (Anchorage, Alaska)
• Alaska Food Policy Council (Homer, Alaska)
• Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (Anchorage, Alaska)
• Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (Little Rock, Ark.)
• Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance (Little Rock, Ark.)
• Center for Rural Affairs (Lyons, Neb.)
• Centro para la Nueva Economía (San Juan, PR)
• Children’s Action Alliance (Phoenix, Ariz.)
• Feeding Northeast Florida (Jacksonville, Fla.)
• Florida Impact (Tallahassee, Fla.)
• Florida Policy Institute (Orlando, Fla.)
• Georgia Budget & Policy Institute (Atlanta, Ga.)
• Hawai’i Appleseed (Honolulu Hawai’i)
• Hawai’i Children’s Action Network (Honolulu, Hawai’i)
• Hawai’i Foodbank Collaborative (Honolulu, Hawai’i)
• Hawai’i Public Health Institute (Honolulu, Hawai’i)
• Hunger Free Oklahoma (Tulsa, Okla.)
• Indiana Justice Project (Indianapolis, Ind.)
• Indy Hunger Network (Indianapolis, Ind.)
• Instituto del Desarrollo de la Juventud (San Juan, PR)
• Kansas Action for Children (Topeka, Kan.)
• Kansas Appleseed (Lawrence, Kan.)
• Kentucky Center for Economic Policy (Berea, Ky.)
• Latino Community Fund of Georgia (Atlanta, Ga.)
• Nebraska Appleseed (Lincoln, Neb.)
• North Carolina Budget & Tax Center (Durham, N.C.)
• Oklahoma Policy Institute (Tulsa, Okla.)
• OpenSky Policy Institute (Lincoln, Neb.)
• Poverty Solutions Group (Winter Garden, Fla.)
• Voices for Georgia’s Children (Atlanta, Ga.)
• William Morris Institute for Justice (Phoenix, Ariz.)
• Youth Development Institute (Phoenix, Ariz.)

MAZON’s current Indian Country grantee partners are:

• Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative (Fayetteville, Ark.)
• Makoce Agriculture Development (Porcupine, S.D.)
• Native Food and Nutrition Resource Alliance (Los Alamos, N.M.)

MAZON’s current grantee partners in Israel are:

• 121 Engine for Social Change (Tel Aviv)
• Adva Center (Tel Aviv)
• ASSAF – Aid Organization for Refugees (Tel Aviv)
• Itach Ma’aki – Women Lawyers for Social Justice (Tel Aviv)
• Jerusalem Food Rescuers (Jerusalem)
• Kerem (Jerusalem)
• Latet (Tel Aviv)
• Leket Israel (Ra’anana)
• Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality (Omer)
• Nevet (Ra’anana)
• Pitchon Lev (Rishon Lezion)
• Rabbis for Human Rights (Jerusalem)
• Sidreh (Omer)
• Sikkuy-Aufoq (Jerusalem)
• Solidarity Film Festival (Tel Aviv)
• The Israel Forum for Sustainable Nutrition (Tel Aviv)